Why early industry engagement shapes aviation innovation

Breakthrough technologies rarely create impact through engineering alone. They create impact when researchers, industry, policy makers and future users engage early enough to shape their future.
In collaborative European research, industry engagement is often seen as something that happens once results are available. Our experience is the opposite. The earlier researchers, industry and policy makers start talking to each other, the greater the chance that promising technologies will ultimately be adopted.

For projects working on clean aviation innovation, international events such as the Farnborough International Airshow (FIA) provide one of the few opportunities to bring researchers, aircraft manufacturers, suppliers, policy makers and funding organisations together in the same place. For technologies that are still at low Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), these conversations are particularly valuable. They help researchers understand real-world needs while giving industry early visibility of technologies that could influence the next generation of aircraft.

For organisations coordinating collaborative research, this means that communication and stakeholder engagement should not be treated as dissemination activities at the end of a project. They should be planned alongside the research itself to maximise future uptake and impact.

This was exactly why the Horizon Europe project MINIMAL chose to present its work at FIA2026.

Building on the successful participation of its predecessor H2020 project ULTIMATE, whose research laid the foundations for MINIMAL, the consortium decided it was indeed the right time to present its latest propulsion concepts and technology demonstrators while engaging directly with the international aerospace community.

FIA2026 also provides an opportunity to look beyond the project itself. Bringing together the ClimAvTech cluster (a collaborative environment of Horizon Europe Cluster 5 projects), funding authorities and industry in one place creates space for discussions on the future of clean aviation research and innovation – what technologies need further development, where the biggest research gaps remain and how future public funding can best support Europe’s long-term aviation ambitions.

Why successful stakeholder engagement starts months in advance

Visitors see a finished booth.

What they rarely see are the months of preparation behind it.

Planning MINIMAL’s participation started in September 2025, almost ten months before the exhibition. The consortium made a conscious decision early in the project to include FIA2026 as part of its communication and dissemination strategy. As a result, the exhibition became an integral part of the project’s overall stakeholder engagement approach from the outset.

From then on, we organised monthly coordination meetings to keep everyone aligned. Rather than long reporting sessions, they focused on making decisions: who would attend, which technologies should be presented, what story the project wanted to tell and which responsibilities each partner would take on.

Although planning started early, the workload increased significantly during the final four months. This was when exhibitor passes were purchased, travel and accommodation arranged, videos and posters finalised, shipments coordinated and communication materials prepared.

One lesson became clear very quickly: successful participation at an international event starts months before the first poster is printed.

Why communication starts long before the event

Behind every successful collaborative R&I project showcase are months of coordination between researchers, communication specialists, designers and logistics teams. That preparation is largely invisible to visitors, but essential for meaningful stakeholder engagement.

Take one of the videos displayed at the booth. To visitors, it is simply a short video playing on a screen. Behind that short video were researchers, communication specialists, designers and suppliers working together over several months.

Preparing the exhibition stand meant coordinating nine partners from five countries, around twelve researchers and engineers each day throughout the exhibition, six suppliers in Germany and the UK, international shipping, customs procedures, travel arrangements, participant information packages, social media activities, technical posters, videos, giveaways and onsite logistics.

Most of this work happened remotely, long before anyone arrived in Farnborough.

Why collaborative projects need one shared story

Effective communication in collaborative R&I projects means helping stakeholders understand how diverse research activities contribute to a shared innovation journey.

That thinking shaped every communication decision.

Visitors first discover the wider European context through the MINIMAL overview, the predecessor project ULTIMATE and the ClimAvTech cluster. They are then introduced to the project’s flagship propulsion concepts developed by Chalmers University of Technology and Bauhaus Luftfahrt, before exploring the supporting research from Cranfield University, Rolls-Royce plc, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and TU Delft.

The eight technical posters are designed to complement one another rather than overlap. Each explains a different part of the project while contributing to one shared story. The technology exhibits are placed next to the relevant posters to connect engineering concepts with tangible technologies, while the videos help visitors see the research behind the results.

Even the booth layout, giveaways and communication materials are designed around the same narrative.

Helping researchers focus on research

Researchers want to spend their time discussing their work and networking with visitors.

Our role is to make sure everything else happens around them.

Alongside the communication strategy, PNO coordinated the booth, supplier management, participant logistics, UK ETA guidance, international shipping and customs, technical posters, videos, the press release, social media campaign, participant information package, meeting schedule and onsite coordination.

Our objective was to make participation as straightforward as possible through clear templates, practical guidance, shared document spaces and decision-focused meetings. This reduced administrative burden while keeping enough flexibility to accommodate new ideas and last-minute improvements.

Looking back, that flexibility proved just as important as the planning itself. In our experience at PNO, reducing administrative effort also increases the quality of stakeholder engagement.

What do we observe across collaborative projects?

Across Horizon Europe projects we repeatedly observe three challenges:

• researchers engage stakeholders too late
• every partner tells a different story
• communication is treated as a deliverable instead of a strategy

MINIMAL provides another practical example that these challenges can be successfully addressed when communication is embedded from the beginning.

What can collaborative projects learn from FIA2026?

Preparing for an international exhibition is about much more than reserving exhibition space. From our experience, three things make the biggest difference.

1. Start early. Planning MINIMAL’s exhibition started ten months prior to the event.
2. Agree on one story before creating communication materials. Posters, videos, demonstrators and technology exhibits should reinforce one another rather than compete for attention.
3. Think beyond the exhibition itself. The real value of an international event is not measured by the number of visitors to the booth. It lies in the conversations, new contacts and future collaborations that continue after the exhibition has ended.

The real value of an international event is not measured by the number of visitors to the booth. It lies in the conversations, new contacts and future collaborations that continue after the exhibition has ended.

Communication creates impact from research

Preparing MINIMAL for FIA2026 reinforces something we observe across many collaborative research projects: communication is not something that begins once the research is finished.

For us, communication and stakeholder engagement are about much more than producing posters or organising events. They help researchers explain complex ideas, create opportunities for dialogue and ensuring that excellent research reaches the people who can build on it.

Organisations preparing Horizon Europe projects increasingly need to think about stakeholder engagement long before results become available. If you’re planning a collaborative research project, this conversation is worth starting at proposal stage – not at the first exhibition.

Innovation rarely starts when a technology is ready for the market. It starts much earlier – when researchers, industry and policy makers begin talking to each other.

At PNO Innovation, this is exactly how we support collaborative R&I projects – from proposal development and project management to communication, dissemination, stakeholder engagement and exploitation.

About the MINIMAL project

The examples in this article are drawn from MINIMAL, a collaborative European research project developing next-generation propulsion technologies for cleaner aviation. Coordinated by Chalmers University of Technology, the project brings together leading universities, research organisations and aerospace industry partners from across Europe, including PNO Innovation Germany as the consortium partner responsible for project management, communication, dissemination and stakeholder engagement in the aviation research and innovation.

Learn more about the project: https://www.minimal-aviation.eu/

This article reflects the experience of the MINIMAL team at PNO Innovation Germany: Sandra Annetzberger, Chiara Lonoce and Tanja Oster.